USWNT Star Alex Morgan Announces Retirement After 15 Years

United States women’s soccer legend Alex Morgan officially announced her retirement Thursday, ending a senior career that spanned nearly 16 years. In that time, Morgan led the U.S. to two World Cup victories and an Olympic gold medal, among many other achievements.

“I grew up on this team, it was so much more than soccer,” Morgan said in a statement Thursday. “It was the friendships and the unwavering respect and support among each other, the relentless push for global investment in women’s sports, and the pivotal moments of success both on and off the field.”

In the midst of the United States’ dynastic run in women’s soccer, Morgan joined the national team in 2008 and was the youngest player on the team at the 2011 World Cup. Joining around the same time as Carli Lloyd, Megan Rapinoe and Becky Sauerbrunn, she became an integral part in keeping the program at the highest levels of the sport into the 2010s.

Coming out of the University of California in 2010, Morgan went on to have a successful club career as well, playing for 10 teams in brief stints while also participating in international competition. She has spent her last three seasons with the San Diego Wave, scoring 22 goals in 45 appearances.

Though she participated at the club level throughout her career, Morgan’s most well-known moments all occurred while representing the United States. In 15 seasons, she made 224 appearances and scored 123 goals, earning the title of co-captain in 2018 and held the title with Rapinoe and Lloyd until 2020.

“I am so incredibly honored to have borrowed the crest for more than 15 years,” Morgan said. “I learned so much about myself in that time and so much of that is a credit to my teammates and our fans. I feel immense pride in where this team is headed, and I will forever be a fan of the USWNT. My desire for success may have always driven me, but what I got in return was more than I could have ever asked and hoped for.”

In a sport that is still growing in the United States, Morgan has been an industry leader, a profoundly talented individual who has promoted women’s soccer to aspiring players and fans alike. Soccer in the United States has exploded in popularity since the women’s program’s rise in the early 1990s, and Morgan did her part in propagating that success in a new generation.

Article by Patrick Moquin